I Write Letters to CEOs
johnwdefeo.com
I Write Letters to CEOs
1–10 of 180 posts
Re: I Write Letters to CEOs
#2> From the time that I mailed my letters, the compound annual return of the respondent group is 8.97% greater than the non-respondent companies.
Neat.
Re: I Write Letters to CEOs
#3...Well, that is until everyone tries writing them.
Re: I Write Letters to CEOs
#4> the compound annual return of the respondent group is 8.97% greater than the non-respondent companies.
That's actually interesting, because I could easily explain away the opposite result: CEOs who waste their time responding to personal letters aren't focused on improving company performance. For example, there's some potential negative correlation between time spent playing golf and company performance [1].
Granted, even if this were statistically significant you can think of explanations why it makes sense: "These CEOs have thought so deeply about their business that responding to these letters is trivial", or "Being forced to answer these questions is beneficial for the CEOs business acumen".
Of course the most likely explanation is that the correlation is just spurious and the two things are unrelated.
Still, would be an interesting study!
1: http://www.businessinsider.com/ceo-golf-rounds-indicate-poor...
Re: I Write Letters to CEOs
#5This is some real ball-fondling born-into-privilege nonsense.
I could write to CEOs too, but I wouldn't be so impressed with their boilerplate social interaction, and the predictability of it is why I won't.
Re: I Write Letters to CEOs
#6This is some real ball-fondling born-into-privilege nonsense. I could write to CEOs too, but I wouldn't be so impressed with their boilerplate social interaction, and the predictability of it is why I won't.
I don't think it's a case of being born into privilege. From another blog post on the same site:
"I graduated from college with six figures in debt and no savings or investments. My first job out of college paid $400 per week. I ate dollar-menu fast food every day until I got sick and landed in the hospital. I paid $650 a month to live in a dank basement, ridden with bed bugs, and I slept on a mattress strewn on the floor. I hated my life."
Re: I Write Letters to CEOs
#7How do some of these CEOs have the time to respond so throughly to random letters?
Is it possible that someone is ghostwriting for them?
Re: I Write Letters to CEOs
#8This is some real ball-fondling born-into-privilege nonsense. I could write to CEOs too, but I wouldn't be so impressed with their boilerplate social interaction, and the predictability of it is why I won't.
This breaks the HN guidelines. Please post civilly and substantively, or not at all.
Re: I Write Letters to CEOs
#9How do some of these CEOs have the time to respond so throughly to random letters? Is it possible that someone is ghostwriting for them?
I work a lot for these guys. The larger companies have whole teams responding to these kind of emails. They triage incoming emails and then the team can send the emails on their own on behalf of the C-level exec.
Re: I Write Letters to CEOs
#10How do some of these CEOs have the time to respond so throughly to random letters? Is it possible that someone is ghostwriting for them?
Maybe, but I think you would be surprised.
I wrote to the CEO of a company with a market cap of ~6bn (For comparison, WD40 is 1.95bn) about opening an office in a town where I wanted to move (Also his home town), basically so I could work there. And I got a reply within a few hours. It wasn't a crazy big reply but it was still personal.
I think what really hit it in my case was the fact the town in question was his home town, so it was personal to him. We don't know what was in the letters that were sent to these other companies, but they may have hit a chord because they were pet projects of the CEO's, or because they had already invested capital into it and failed and it was already a mark on their resume etc. CEO's are pretty passionate people.